Photo by Brynden Grow
Students and faculty attended the first Spring Honors Convocation to be held since 2019. In 2020, the convocation was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This also marks the first convocation of any type since the Fall 2019-20 school year.
The Spring and Fall convocations are a tradition in Ottawa. The school likes to take the time to recognize the students and staff for all the hard work they have accomplished in the previous semester and year.
At this year’s spring convocation, I noticed the attendance was on par with the usual amount. I remembered convocation as a huge event, with the chapel always packed with students and faculty to see all the success everyone had accomplished. This is a new trend since the pandemic hit, not only in events like these but in classes as well.
(I attempted to reach out to the Academic Dean Eric Koch but was unable to set up a meeting to discuss convocation.)
Associate professor of communication studies Ryan Louis thought attendance wasn’t to capacity.
“Attendance seemed pretty low,” he says.
“But part of that, I think, was that the faculty and presenters — who usually take up three rows — were on stage. Perhaps my perception of attendance was off because, whereas I usually face the stage, this time I faced students.”